Under the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA), TRI collects information to track industry progress in reducing waste generation and moving towards safer waste management alternatives. Many facilities provide descriptions on measures they have taken to prevent pollution and reduce the amount of toxic chemicals entering the environment. As a result, TRI serves as a tool for identifying effective environmental practices and highlighting pollution prevention successes.

Source Reduction Activities Reported to TRI

For 2015, a total of 2,424 facilities (11% of all TRI facilities) reported initiating 7,508 source reduction activities. Good operating practices, process modifications, and spill and leak prevention were the activities reported most frequently.

View Examples
Click on the legend or graph to see examples of source reduction activities.

Examples:

A glass manufacturer installed a deionized water cleaning system which produces cleaner product for the calibration operation that uses mercury. As a result, less maintenance is required, resulting in decreased mercury waste.

With the help of a vendor, a food manufacturing facility substituted a high nitric acid sanitation chemical to an equally effective low nitric acid chemical.